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Australia’s re-elected Prime Minister Scott Morrison once brandished a lump of coal in parliament, crying, “This is coal — don’t be afraid!” His surprise win in what some dubbed the “climate election” may have stunned the country, but voters should know what comes next in energy policy — big coal. Battered by extended droughts, damaging floods, and more bush fires, Australian voters had been expected to hand a mandate to the Labor Party to pursue its ambitious targets for renewable energy and carbon emissions cuts. Instead, Saturday’s election left them on course to re-elect the Liberal-led center-right coalition headed by...

A former Australian prime minister has warned the government to expect a negative reaction from Indonesia if Australia follows the United States by shifting its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull spoke to reporters after meeting Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on the tourist island of Bali on Monday to discuss a bilateral free trade deal. “The president expressed to me ... the very serious concern held in Indonesia about the prospect of the Australian Embassy in Israel being moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem,” Turnbull told Australian Broadcasting Corp. in an interview...

Scott Morrison, the Australian treasurer who on Friday became his country's newest prime minister, is reported to be an evangelical Christian who voted against gay marriage. Morrison won an internal ballot, 45-40, in the Liberal party, forcing moderate Malcolm Turnbull out amid political turmoil in the country. He attends Horizon Church, a Pentecostal megachurch in Sutherland, and lists "church" as one of his interests. Nick Bryant, a journalist and expert on Australian politics, told CNN that Morrison met his future wife, Jenny, at church when he was 12 years old. Their current church is said to have close ties to...

Reporting from Sydney, New York Times Australia bureau chief Damien Cave provided a conservative-mocking “news analysis,” “Coal Lobby Turns Up Heat, and Australia Wilts Under Climate Change.” The text box reproached the country: “A progressive nation remains in thrall to the energy industry.” The online headline: “Australia Wilts From Climate Change. Why Can’t Its Politicians Act?” Mile after mile of the Great Barrier Reef is dying amid rising ocean temperatures. Hundreds of bush fires are blazing across Australia’s center, in winter, partly because of a record-breaking drought. The global scientific consensus is clear: Australia is especially vulnerable to climate change....

Australia will consider adding a “values test” for those considering permanent residency in order to protect its “extraordinarily successful” multicultural society, Malcolm Turnbull said. The prime minister confirmed what his citizenship and multicultural minister Alan Tudge told the Australia/UK Leadership Forum overnight, where he floated the idea of a “values” test to fend off “segregation”. Tudge told his London audience “our ship is slightly veering towards a European separatist multicultural model and we want to pull it back to be firmly on the Australian integrated path”. “Some of the challenges to social cohesion that we are facing today are similar...

When Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull arrives in Washington this week for consultations with President Donald Trump, he won’t be traveling solo. Turnbull is bringing the most senior Australian political and business delegation ever to visit the United States in a trip aimed at building stronger relationships with America’s governors. While he’ll talk trade and security concerns with Trump, Turnbull will spend the weekend courting U.S. governors at their annual gathering. Turnbull, a Goldman Sachs executive-turned prime minister, is the latest world leader to extend outreach to U.S. governors and big-city mayors in the age of Trump’s “America First” policies....

ABOUT 50 refugees in Australia’s offshore detention centres have passed the United States’ “extreme vetting” and will be resettled in America in coming weeks. It comes just six weeks before the Manus Island detention centre in Papua New Guinea is due to close. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull this morning said it was “good news” that about 25 refugees from both Manus Island and Nauru would be resettled. Mr Turnbull thanked US President Donald Trump for honouring his deal with the Obama Administration despite his obvious reservations. The deal had been the subject of their testy phone call in January, just...

Australian political leaders, including Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, have come out in support of a campaign for same-sex marriage. More than 20,000 people gathered in Sydney to campaign ahead of a non-binding postal vote on changing Australia's marriage act. Mr Turnbull made a surprise appearance and speech at the launch of the New South Wales Yes campaign. Opposition leader Bill Shorten then addressed the crowd at the main rally. The non-binding vote to gauge support for changing Australia's Marriage Act will be sent out from 12 September, with a result expected in November. The survey will not have the power...

Audio has surfaced of Malcolm Turnbull mocking Donald Trump at a recent press gala.

Sanders also says Senate should use Australian system as model while crafting an alternative to Republicans’ replacement for ObamacareBernie Sanders has declared President Donald Trump was right to say Australia has better healthcare than the US. Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination last year, said the US Senate should use the Australian system as a model while crafting an alternative to the Republican healthcare legislation that Trump endorses. “President Trump is right. The Australian healthcare system provides healthcare to all of its people at a fraction of the cost than we do,” Sanders commented...

During a meeting Thursday night with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, President Donald Trump praised Australia’s universal health care system. He made the comments while insisting that Republicans are “united” in their push to repeal Obamacare and praising the legislation passed by the House on Thursday. “It’s a very good bill right now. The premiums are going to come down, very substantially. The deductibles are going to come down. It’s going to be fantastic health care. Right now Obamacare is failing. We have a failing health care,” Trump said. “I shouldn’t say this to our great gentleman and my friend...

U.S. President Donald Trump was wasting his time deriding the media over their coverage of his administration, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said on Friday, citing the example of British wartime leader Winston Churchill. Trump has repeatedly described media criticism of him as "fake news" since taking office last month, labeling the media as the "opposition party". On Thursday, he dismissed a growing controversy about ties between his aides and Russia as a "ruse" and a "scam" perpetrated by a hostile news media. Turnbull, whose relationship with Trump got off to a rocky start earlier this month, said the 45th...

Australia should consider itself lucky. President Donald Trump could have threatened to invade instead of just hanging up on Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and the rest of those blokes down under. In what should have been a friendly call to one of our staunchest allies, the call ended up nasty, but not before Trump, as is his wont, bragged about his electoral victory over Hillary Clinton, something of which he cannot stop talking about.

Donald Trump's press secretary get Aussie Prime Minister's name wrong TWICE 2/03/2017 Watch Donald Trump's press secretary get Aussie Prime Minister's name wrong TWICE in hilarious fashion Sean Spicer couldn't quite get Malcolm Turnbull's name out properly during a briefing over his phone call row with Trump. Not to mention the mass protests in cities across America as his controversial policies continue to divide the nation. But Spicer found himself stumbling on the most basic of details during Thursday's press conference at the White House; the name of the Australian Prime Minister. In his eagerness to emphasise Trump's anger at...

Whatever adjectives can be used to describe our new President, ‘diplomatic’ is not one which springs readily to mind. His phone conversation with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull merely serves to reinforce a reputation for bluntness that was already solidified within the public imagination. In this case, however, I think his impolitic speech is actually beneficial for American citizens. For the refugee resettlement swap cooked up by his predecessor, which involves the exchange of non-Muslim Central American refugees for Muslim boat people currently being detained at the behest of the Australian government, is another disastrous scheme to further erase our...

McCain steps into diplomatic vacuum to soothe allies Mr. Trump’s blustery phone call with Australia’s prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, was enough to pull the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee into the diplomatic breach. In a remarkable statement, Mr. McCain, Republican of Arizona, announced that he had called Australia’s ambassador to the United States, Joe Hockey, to assure him of an “unwavering support for the U.S.-Australia alliance.” “I asked Ambassador Hockey to convey to the people of Australia that their American brothers and sisters value our historic alliance, honor the sacrifice of the Australians who have served and are...

Memo from Justin Trudeau to all staff: “If Trump calls, I’M NOT IN!” And who could blame our plucky PM? In a dizzying few hours this week, Donald Trump has rewritten the book on American diplomacy. Rewritten? Hell, he’s ripped it up, burned it, spit on it and flung it in the swamp. There is more Marquis de Sade than Marquess of Queensberry about the Donald’s statesmanship. First, he reportedly hangs up on Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull in a spat over refugees. Turnbull insists America take 1,250 folks from Syria and Iraq who are now in Australia’s off-shore island...

MALCOLM Turnbull thought he could outsmart Donald Trump and trap him into taking 1250 of our boat people. Huge mistake, and now he’s been humiliated. There is no surprise that an angry Trump attacked Turnbull in their call at the weekend and hung up halfway through, after just 25 minutes. What did Turnbull expect? This political disaster was always on the cards from the moment Turnbull announced, on November 13 last year, that he’d signed a deal with then US president Barack Obama to take our boat people detained on Nauru and Manus Island. That was very dumb because just...

  Too funny.  Australia Herald Andrew Bolt outlines “the leaker” of the phone call between Australian Prime Minster Malcolm Turnbull and U.S. President Trump came from down under – Turnbull leaked it.  Malcolm Turnbull tried to play a game of dirty politics with terrible results. Australia has their own version of the “Calais jungle” filled with economic migrants unwanted by the majority of the Australian people. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull won’t accept any asylum seekers, migrants or refugees who arrive by boat.  Instead, [Australia] intercepts such vessels and sends them to remote Manus Island, in Papua New Guinea – link – Prime-Minister Turnbull is stuck betwix a...

US President Donald Trump is still talking tough about allies but instead of Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in his sights, he is turning up the heat on Barack Obama for negotiating the Manus Island and Nauru refugee deal. Mr Trump said on Thursday he loves Australia and will honour the deal struck by his predecessor but only refugees who pass extreme vetting will be allowed into the US. "If a previous administration does something you have to respect that but you can also say 'Why are we doing this?'" Mr Trump, speaking to reporters before a meeting at the...